November 12th, 2015

8 Places You’ve Never Thought to Clean in Your Home

If you actually clean all these places in your home, you’re living proof that cleanliness is next to godliness. For the rest of us mortals, these eight locations serve as helpful reminders that out of mind doesn’t always mean out of sight.

1. Above door mouldings

Just like baseboards, tiny ledges around your home gather dust over time. Grab a damp rag and run it along the top of the door frame. You’ll be running around the house wiping all your doors in no time.

2. Doorknobs & light switches

You might think to clean doorknobs, but what about deadbolts and light switches? They get touched many times a day and are rarely cleaned. Give them a wipe with a disinfectant.

3. Behind books on a bookcase

If you don’t rearrange your bookshelves regularly, you don’t see what’s behind the books on a shelf. Most of us dust the front of the shelf, but the couple of inches behind books gets filthy too. Pull the books out and give the full surface a wipe every few months.

4. Inside your registers

If you own your home, you might take the time to clean your registers; if you’re renting, it’s likely you’ve peeked inside. Pull the entire register grate out and vacuum it. You can wash the grate by hand in the sink if it’s too yucky to vacuum. (If it’s not removable, you can use canned air to loosen any debris before sucking the mess out with a vacuum.) Added bonus – clean registers remove a big source of potential allergens from your home.

6. Inside a kettle

Kettles get buildup in them, the same as coffee makers. If you have an electric kettle, you can see the gunk every time you open the top. But if you have a classic stove-top kettle, you might not realize how scuzzy it’s getting. Boil a solution of half vinegar, half water in it every couple of months to break down the buildup. If, after rinsing, you still see debris in the water, do another round.

7. Popcorn popper

This one is a kitchen item you might never clean…because it seems unnecessary. It isn’t. After every use, give the cover a good scrub in hot soapy water. Then, once in a while, wipe and dry the full base, inside and out.

8. Magnetic knife rack

This item should be cleaned monthly. What’s the point of cleaning a knife and then sticking it to a dirty surface. Keeping the rack clean minimizes the chance of rust or grime making from your knives into your food.